Who will convince the Kosovo Serbs to pay for electricity? – politics

Serbia no longer has the possibility to transport electricity to Kosovo without the consent of the Pristina authorities, because the agreement reached in the Brussels dialogue on the normalization of relations with Pristina does not allow it.

This is what representatives of Northern Kosovo NGOs and Metohija say about Danas, commenting on the recent suspension of electricity transmission from central Serbia to Kosovo, immediately after the start of independent work on Kosovo’s energy system .

Our interlocutors point out that it is unrealistic to expect that the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, will even try to convince the Serbs of northern Kosovo to pay their accumulated debts for electricity, because he has no authority to do so.

Lazar Rakic, program director of the Kosovska Mitrovica Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution, notes that: “Once the energy deal is implemented, Vucic will not have the authority to prohibit or persuade Northern Serbs to pay for electricity.”

– The authority of what citizens should or should not have in Belgrade is gradually leaving Pristina since the beginning of the implementation of the Brussels Agreement. The 2013 Brussels Accords resulted in an integrated Kosovo police and an integrated Kosovo court, which are institutions that are responsible for the application of Kosovo law and the fulfillment of the obligations of citizens. It is important to understand how the system has worked so far in terms of electricity supply in the North. The supply was made by the Serbian Electric Power Industry, and that company has so far had the opportunity to use the transport system to the north of Kosovo without hindrance because the system was within the same control block. Now that the Kosovo system is separated from this control block, Serbia does not have the possibility to transport electricity to the north of Kosovo without the consent of KOSTT (Kosovo Public Electricity Transmission Company). Considering that EPS is a public company operating under the system of the Republic of Serbia, it did not have a way to charge and penalize consumers who did not pay for electricity because they did not have other necessary state bodies (courts and police) to help to sanction and collect the expense. energy, explains the interlocutor from Danas.

According to Rakic, the Energy Agreement between Belgrade and Pristina implies that EPS applies for the license of two companies with the Kosovo regulator: EPS Trade, a company that would deal with trade and Elektrosever, a company that would deal with supply, collection and distribution.

– That process has been slowed down for political reasons, but I think these companies will be formed and it remains to be seen in what way. It is important to mention that there is still uncertainty about who will own EPS infrastructure and assets in northern Kosovo. Although the distribution license for Elektrosever is clearly mentioned in the agreement, indicating that the distribution license will be further negotiated with the EU mediation, clear messages have come from Kosovo from Edita Tahiri in 2015 that Elektrosever will not receive a license. of distribution. and infrastructure maintenance. It is also important to mention that the connection agreement between KOSTT and ENTSO was signed in June this year and is not yet publicly available. The information provided by KOSTT is available in its June press release, where it is mentioned that the contract with ENTSO implies licensing of the company Elektrosever for the electricity supply, but does not mention distribution and marketing licenses. So it remains to be seen in what form these companies will be formed, but it is clear that they will be companies that will function within the Kosovo legal system and therefore the collection will be enforceable. If it happens that a consumer does not want to pay, now the new company will have at its disposal the Kosovo court and the police, who will help enforce the sanction and collect the claims, says Lazar Rakić.

Miodrag Marinkovic, program director of the Kosovska Mitrovica NGO “Aktiv”, believes that the only certainty in the agreement that resulted in the integration of northern Kosovo into the Pristina energy system is that Serbia participated in its achievement, “which It means that the details of the agreement and the information are needed by citizens who are already familiar with the Belgrade authorities. “

– The fact that they do not communicate with us raises fears that things are such that in no way can they be presented as a success of our negotiators. And there are many things that we would like to know, starting with when the electricity will begin to be charged, what will happen to the accumulated debts, what are the prices of kilowatts, etc. With this agreement, Serbia exempted itself from the energy deals in northern Kosovo, so I think that the burden of convincing the Serbs to start paying will not be borne by Vučić, but by the competent distribution company in Priština. I fear this will result in collective exclusions, people burnout and some similar robust solutions that will not only cause citizen dissatisfaction, but also risk creating a humanitarian crisis, Marinkovic estimates.

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